Life And Business: INDEPENDENCE AND RESILIENCE
- Writer for DDI on Medium
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
DON’T SELL ME DREAMS, SELL REALITY!
I agree.
What your purchasing public wants is connected to cash flow health. But “more clients” is not a very good strategy unless the goal is to become a workhorse.
Profitability, when you're a 1-3 man show, hinges on the time spent delivering your services, not on how much work you can scoop over the next guy. "Money running, de longer things take," is probably your reasoning, but that's a cock n bull story. You actually lose money that way.
Care to take a stab in the dark at where the 'dip in cash flow' happens?
If your life feels lopsided, like you never have the time for anything else outside your business, you need balance, of which there are many concepts.
INDEPENDENCE AND RESILIENCE
We’ve all heard of working on our business as much as we work in our business. But what does that look like?
If you need a book to help you discover your personal insights, that’s fine. But listening to the Caribbean argument worked for me.
If you want to design a life that gives you ownership over the type of business you run, that isn't fearful of expressing what it thinks, and inoculates you from the circumstances of the economy, reality is that a reduction in cash flow—people not buying because you’re either taking a course, or on a long-awaited vacation, is part of the deal.
These things signal time found to work on your business. And yes, vacation time with family is one and the same, so don’t underestimate it. Instead, what's often presented as "working on your business" is buying a course or paying for a service, when allocating the time to do the course or be mentally present for the service is the real problem.
When you're a 1-3 man show, acquiring the time means 'dips in cash flow.'
GOLIATHS ARE ANOINTED BY WHAT MONEY CAN SAVE THEM FROM DOING
...including figuring out the basis of their “success.”
Work, work, work, work, work wasn’t how I was able to save a lot of money during the pandemic, or even save now. Figuring out the value of my services, how to articulate it, and defining what enough looks like for me was.
Working with clients in an intensive way gave me the means to finance various things like the courses I took during the pandemic, my little sister's birthday party I planned in 2022 (at that time, I was not working with clients), and the management course my little brother wanted to take in 2023. Despite this global forex crisis waxing great, I treated my aunt and little sister, just for the hell of it, to a very lavish dinner, and experienced a really delicious seafood boil in C3, while replacing the mouse for my 21inch Imac last year.
Sometimes profit runs low, sometimes disposable income runs out. That doesn't mean no savings.
But we live in an age of spectacle. So, lack of spectacle as a “cash flow problem” is the measuring stick. Breaking the rules just reflects a difference in priorities; not everyone is comfortable with documenting every detail of their life for superficial enjoyment; some things are sacred and private, and, believe it or not, some decisions are spiritual.
If you feel the same way, I see you.
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